Francis Ford Coppola is recovering in a Rome hospital after undergoing what his spokesman called a “long-planned update” to treat atrial fibrillation, a heart-rhythm disorder the 86-year-old director has managed for three decades.
The procedure was performed Tuesday at Policlinico Tor Vergata by cardiologist Andrea Natale; doctors say the filmmaker is “stable and doing fine,” with discharge expected later this week. Winner of five Academy Awards, Coppola had been staying at his family’s Palazzo Margherita hotel in Bernalda when routine tests indicated the need for the tune-up.
He travelled to the appointment by car and later posted a smiling photograph on Instagram, writing “I am well” to reassure supporters alarmed by early media reports suggesting an emergency admission. A representative added that the visit had been on the calendar for months and rejected claims of a cardiac scare, noting that the director’s blood oxygen remained normal throughout.
Coppola is in Italy on a promotional swing for his self-financed epic Megalopolis, which screened this week at the Magna Graecia Film Festival in Catanzaro following its competitive debut at Cannes last year.
Budgeted at roughly $120 million, the science-fiction drama is set for North American release through Lionsgate on September 27 after a distribution deal struck in 2024. Despite mixed box-office projections, the roadshow approach allows Coppola to introduce the picture personally, replicating the independent model he used to finance it.
Italy has long served as a creative refuge for the filmmaker, who traces family roots to the Basilicata region and is scouting locations for a proposed musical adaptation of Edith Wharton’s Glimpses of the Moon.
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Colleagues at the Catanzaro festival sent well-wishes, while cardiologists interviewed by Italian broadcasters said catheter ablation—the likely procedure—carries a high success rate for symptomatic atrial fibrillation in older patients. Barring complications, Coppola is expected to resume public appearances within weeks, continuing a late-career burst of activity that has kept the Godfather auteur in front of audiences well into his ninth decade.
